Attorney withdraws olive branch to self-described pedophile

Whatever olive branch was extended to self-proclaimed pedophile Jack McClellan by the local attorney working to keep him away from Santa Clarita children has since been withdrawn.

Lawyer Tony Zinnanti, who successfully won a court order last summer restricting McClellan's movements in California, has withdrawn a recent offer he made to McClellan that would have narrowed the scope of the statewide ban leveled against him.

"Jack posted on his Web site that he will probably return to California to attend GL (Girl Love) events in California," Zinnanti said Thursday. "So, when I saw that I thought, 'I'm not going to settle with anything.' We're going for the whole deal now.

"If the story is 'Pedophile vows to return to California' then my story would be 'Attorney withdraws any offer of settlement and proceeds to litigation.'"

Thursday was the deadline set by the California Court of Appeals requiring McClellan to submit his response to the injunction brought against him.

No such brief was filed, according to Zinnanti.

Zinnanti and McClellan have been locked in an ongoing feud ever since the local lawyer went to Superior Court in Chatsworth and returned with a statewide court order prohibiting McClellan being within 10 yards of any child in California.

McClellan moved to Portland, Ore., shortly after he was detained by campus police enforcing the injunction at the University of California, Los Angeles, but continued his fight against the man who forced him out.

He has retained a lawyer, enjoyed the support of sympathizers and returned to the Internet to make his concerns known.

Late last year, a handful of people sympathizing with McClellan attacked Zinnanti and New York Web designer Ron Tebo, publishing photographs of their respective children on the Internet alongside explicit sexual text.

'Civil rights'For the past month or so, Zinnanti and McClellan have been trying to reach a mutual understanding through a mediator.

McClellan's lawyer left a voice message with The Signal on Thursday saying he would not comment on mediation.

"We don't comment on settlement negotiations," said lawyer Richard M. Procida, of Whittier. "And the only other thing I'll say is that this is a case about civil rights."

In a posting on his Web site earlier this week, McClellan wrote about Zinnanti's offer before it was rescinded: "He appears to be on the verge of agreement to narrow my restrictions from being around children from the entire state to only the 38th assembly district - meaning that I'd be under no restrictions again throughout the vast majority of the Los Angeles area and could move back to the Southland and resume attending and reviewing GL events there."

It was this promise made on the Internet to return to California to watch young girls that made Zinnanti withdraw his offer of a compromise.

In July, it was McClellan's promise to return to Santa Clarita that motivated Zinnanti to apply for an injunction in the first place.

McClellan identifies the purpose of his Web site as: "To promote association, friendship; and legal, nonsexual, consensual touch (hugging, cuddling, etc) between men and prepubescent girls. I don't practice sexual touching of such girls, am not a sex offender, and am not prohibited from being around children outside of California."

Banned from storeParents and police concerned about McClellan's activities in Portland regularly call on Zinnanti for help.Most recently, representatives of Powell's Books in Portland reached out to Zinnanti for help after McClellan was asked to leave the store.

Ann Smith, CEO of Powell's Books, said managers at all seven of the company's branches have been told to "exclude" McClellan from entering. If he enters any of the stores, staff will call the police, she said."On March 5, our security officers identified him very soon after he entered the store. We watched him and made sure he was being watched.

He did not go into the children's section, but he waited nearby," she said, and added that McClellan left after feeling uncomfortable.